


can we stay in this dream like we are 17?

by kjstark



Series: JATP ficlet requests [1]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Ficlet, Ficlet Collection, First Dates, M/M, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:47:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27162025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kjstark/pseuds/kjstark
Summary: The one with a beach date.
Relationships: Alex/Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms)
Series: JATP ficlet requests [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1982629
Comments: 12
Kudos: 98





	can we stay in this dream like we are 17?

**Author's Note:**

> I posted this on Tumblr last night. Figured I'd do it here, too.

Alex closes the door of the van and washes in the smell of seawater, sun, and sand. It’s a bright day in Venice Beach.

He looks over and Luke’s already running headfirst into the water, having chugged his t-shirt off and onto the sand.

He smiles.

It was a Thursday but it was still the last few days of summer so the beach was crowded just enough.

But Alex had felt like kisses in dark alleys after they sneak out of pubs they shouldn’t have been in in the first was getting a bit too old. So Luke had promised a day at the beach, in broad daylight.

And it was silly to overthink because Alex knew they just looked like two boys being friends and enjoying the sun to the outside eyes. Not two young boyfriends enjoying their summer love on a beach date.

He felt himself get self-conscious and shook his head. No, come on, they had come here a thousand times.

Sure, most of them with Reggie or Bobby, who had family trips this summer and had left them on their own to work on the band (but all they did was build-up something larger than they anticipated).

“Alex!” Luke shouts from the ocean and his eyes are almost bright yellow when the sun hits him just right in the face.

Alex’s stomach flips and he figures the only thing that can help is some highly refreshing water. And being near his stupid boyfriend.

So he takes off his pink shirt and jumps in, too.

“I’ll race you over the waves,” Luke dares, moving his wet eyebrows. 

“Then I hope you like the taste of my bubbles,” Alex shoots back, accepting the challenge. 

Luke opened his mouth in surprise and splashed him in the face to distract him while he started swimming away. “Cheater,” Alex mutters before he swims after him. 

Luke throws his hand up the air, victorious. And then he pokes his tongue out at a breathless and wet Alex.

Worst part is that he can’t even hold a grudge ‘cause he’s grown so damn helpless about Luke’s dimples; it’s ridiculous. 

“What’cha thinking?” Luke wonders when Alex falls silent and stare-y. 

“Nothing,” Alex grins. 

And Luke’s been mind-linked to him since kindergarten; it’s crazy but they always know what the other’s thinking. So Luke’s eyes sparkle and he floats closer to Alex’s space. 

But it triggers Alex’s very acute flight response and he remembers quickly that they’re surrounded by tourists and the rest of the Angeleno population. 

So Alex throws himself on top of Luke’s head and pushes him down, sinking him, before he can expose them both. 

Luke still comes out of the water smiling. And he moves his long-ish waves off his face and then gives Alex a look. Something between a warning and a promise. “Fine. Later, then.” 

And later, they’re lying on the sand, sun slowly setting by them, sky covering in a pretty purple-pink shade and Alex can steal a few glances at Luke lying next to him, close enough to touch but far enough that they’re not lying _together,_ like _that._

“You know, I asked Bobby and he said I could take the van a little further to the woods. I read there’s a good spot, far from the city lights, where you can see stars shine brighter,” Luke shares, inviting. 

“You’re asking me?” Alex arches one eyebrow. It was Luke who planned the evening, after all.

Luke shrugs. “You think you’d get in trouble with your parents?” he asks. 

Alex shakes his head surely. “Nah, my folks are cool.” 

And when the night takes over, Luke drives to the spot he found about, singing along to Poison and Aerosmith tunes with wide smiles on their faces. Alex even so much as goes over the window and screams a few bits of ‘Cryin’ and gets Luke to laugh louder than the music they’re playing on the radio. 

Alex loves it.

And when Luke kisses him on top of the van’s roof, soft lips brushing against his as Luke’s left-hand rests on Alex’s neck and the other one lies on top of his on the cold surface of the car, getting warm under Luke’s touch, Alex comes to the not-at-all altering conclusion:

He loves Luke, too. 

And Alex feels like Luke loves him back when, after Reggie and Bobby have returned, the singer shares a new song he wrote. 

“It’s called ‘In your starlight’,” Luke says before he starts playing. 

And Alex can’t help but smile when he hears about “morning beach days” and “my hand on top of your hand”. 

Best summer ever. 


End file.
